Mount McGladrey

Mount McGladrey

June 13, 2009

Mountain height:    2638 m
Elevation gain:       1100 m
Ascent time to:       4:30
Descent time:         2:50

Solo scramble.

The naming of Mount McGladrey as an official peak defies logic, being one of smaller peaks of the extensive Flathead Range. In fact the unnamed peak immediately north of McGladrey exceeds in height all named peaks in the range with the possible exception of Mount Ptolemy. Nevertheless, the east side of the range is very impressive and warrants at least one visit. Might as well reach a summit while you’re there and McGladrey does offer easy access and interesting scenery (if not decent scrambling).

I did the approach on a bike, using some of Robert Kershaw’s description, from Exploring the Castle and some common sense (ie. brutally obvious logging roads!) The scenery en route was very interesting, courtesy of a major fire that swept through the area in 2003 – interesting to see the damage done by the fire, but even more so to see new life emerge after the fire.

The ascent route was pretty obvious and hard snow in the drainage made travel up the gully easy. Only the deteriorating weather detracted from the experience – that and the soul-sucking slog up horrible talus and scree to the summit. After taking in a pretty decent summit view, I descended to try to find if there was a route up the southeast side of Pengelly. The north ridge of Pengelly, well-documented by Rick Collier on Bivouac, was not at all appealing as a solo scramble. I didn’t find one, however there was plenty of more cool scenery to take in.

Not a particularly great scramble, but the area is definitely worth visiting at least once.

Approaching the area